When a private company is getting ready for its IPO there’s often a low-profile period in the weeks leading up to the big day. Potential investors might get sea sick and jump ship, if there’s any boat rocking. Such is the case with Facebook and its impending IPO. It did reveal a new feature for users this morning, however. Now you can enter your organ donor status on your Timeline. I suppose Big Face figures that’s the kind of rocking that will lull you to sleep to dream of unicorn-shaped status updates and rainbow Pokes. The idea is to raise awareness of the need for donors of organs like livers, hearts, and kidneys. If you’re not a donor already, the site will point you in the direction to register.
But organ donor status… why? According to an interview Mark Zuckerberg did with ABC, the idea came from Priscilla Chan, his med student girlfriend, who mentioned the need for organ donors over dinner. From ABC: “The technology behind the donation application, Zuckerberg said, is a ‘pretty simple thing.’ But the ability to link people across hundreds of miles and save their lives? That, he called, ‘amazing.’”
Ears aren’t organs, but they need donations too:
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